Captain’s Quarters – A Contractor Tells About His Mission reprints an e-mail from a security contractor in Iraq:
As you may or may not know I am not on active duty as [Special Forces] this year. For the last 6 months, I have been one of the government contractors you may have heard about in the news operating in Iraq. I work with many other contractors who, like me, are on Authorized Absence (or discharged) from either Special Forces, Marine Recon, SEAL Teams, etc.
His description of Iraq is…different from CNN’s:
The Iraqi people as a whole?love us. You read it right?love us. Terrorists may hate us and radicals in different ethnic groups within Iraq may hate each other?but in general, the common Iraqi people, Shias, Sunis, Kurds, Chaldeans, Turkomen, all have one thing in common?For one instant in time, they have hope for their future and the future of their children?and that hope is centered around one group of foreigners?you guessed it?Americans?the good old USA.And there are dozens of coalition forces who help us?young military people from most of the free countries in the world are here?and willing to lay down their lives because America has led the way in spreading the good news of freedom and democracy to the oldest land on Earth.
He then shares some “recent examples of how we Americans deal with indigenous people and their dead and prisoners we take.”